Platformer Games Like Celeste: 13 Picks on Steam

Games like Celeste have a lot to live up to: a jump, dash and climb moveset that feels exact, deaths that cost you two seconds instead of two minutes, and a story about anxiety that lands precisely because the climb is hard. If you reached the summit wanting more of that feeling, the picks below chase it from different angles, some brutal, some fast and loud, some quiet and kind.

What makes Celeste what it is

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Celeste came out on January 25, 2018, from Maddy Makes Games Inc. and Extremely OK Games, the team behind TowerFall. You guide Madeline up Celeste Mountain while she wrestles with her own inner demons, and the store page promises 700+ screens of hardcore platforming, devious secrets and brutal B-side chapters (harder remixed versions of each chapter) for the bravest players.

The reason it sticks is the balance between three things:

• Simple controls with real depth. You only jump, air-dash and climb, yet those three moves combine in ways that take the whole game to master.
• Lightning-fast respawns. Every death is a lesson, and you are back in the room before frustration sets in.
• A story that matches the gameplay. The climb is hard because Madeline’s struggle is hard, and the music, with its live piano and synth beats, carries that mood.

Celeste is what players call a precision platformer: a game where success depends on exact jumps and timing rather than combat or stats. It is single-player, has full controller support and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Its Assist Mode lets you slow the game or skip hazards, which is part of why so many people finish it. So when picking games like Celeste, ask which of those three things you loved most. The sections below are sorted that way.

Hardcore games like Celeste: precision platformers

If the B-sides were your favourite part, start here. These three are built around tiny levels, constant deaths and the rush of finally nailing a run.

Super Meat Boy

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Super Meat Boy is the template many hard platformers followed, and the most direct answer for anyone looking for platformers like Celeste with no padding. Team Meat released it on November 30, 2010, and its store page sums it up as “tough as nails”: you play a cube of meat leaping from walls, over seas of buzz saws and through crumbling caves to rescue his girlfriend.

What you actually do is clear 300+ short single-player levels that ramp from hard to, in the game’s own words, soul crushing. Wall jumping is central, so if Celeste’s climbing sections clicked for you, the rhythm will feel familiar. There are boss fights, warp zones, hidden characters, a level editor, and a playable Head Crab character exclusive to Steam.

Best for: players who want pure reflex challenge and do not need much story. Modes: Single-player, full controller support, gamepad recommended. Windows, macOS and Linux.

The End Is Nigh

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Of all the games like Celeste on this list, The End Is Nigh may be closest in structure. Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel released it on July 12, 2017, and it is a sprawling adventure platformer split into single-screen challenges, much like Celeste’s rooms. You play Ash, one of the few things to survive the end of the world, on a strange, darkly funny quest to build himself a friend.

There are 600+ levels across 12+ explorable chapters, and the collecting will feel familiar: instead of strawberries you hunt hundreds of little tumors, plus 20+ fully playable mini game cartridges, each with its own achievements. Hidden extras and multiple endings reward players who poke into every corner.

Best for: Celeste completionists who loved hunting secrets off the main path. Modes: Single-player, full controller support, Steam Workshop. Windows, macOS and Linux.

Super Meat Boy Forever

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Super Meat Boy Forever, from Team Meat on January 10, 2022, is an auto-runner: Meat Boy never stops moving, so you control when he jumps, dives, slides and punches rather than where he walks. That makes it a different skill from Celeste, more about timing than positioning, but the brutal difficulty and instant retries carry over.

The hook is replay value. The team built thousands of handcrafted level chunks and stitches them into new levels, so each fresh playthrough gives you different stages with their own secret spots.

Best for: players who finished Celeste’s hardest content and want something that keeps changing. Modes: Single-player, full controller support. Windows only.

Fast, stylish games for speedrunners

Celeste has a huge speedrunning community, and its dash rewards players who keep momentum. These picks lean into speed, flow and shaving seconds off your best time.

Pizza Tower

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Pizza Tower, released by Tour De Pizza on January 26, 2023, is a fast-paced 2D platformer with an emphasis on movement, exploration and score attack. You play Peppino Spaghetti, a surprisingly agile restaurant owner smashing his way through a tower to save his business, all in wild pixel art inspired by 1990s cartoons and a very energetic soundtrack.

It is far sillier than Celeste, and less about careful jumps than about building speed and keeping it. The fit is the feeling of a moveset that gets better the more you understand it. You can chase high scores or explore floors for secrets at your own pace.

Best for: players who loved Celeste’s dash and want something loud and funny. Modes: Single-player, Multi-player, Shared/Split Screen Co-op, Remote Play Together, full controller support. Windows only. It is the one pick here with local co-op, so see our best co-op games on Steam if playing together matters most.

Neon White

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Neon White moves the idea into first person. Angel Matrix released it on June 16, 2022, and its store page calls it a single-player speedrunning FPS where you can sacrifice your guns for godlike parkour moves. You play White, an assassin plucked from Hell to slay demons in Heaven for a chance at redemption.

The clever part is the Soul Cards: use one to attack, or discard it for a movement ability, and combine them to find huge shortcuts. Like Celeste’s routes, each level has an obvious path and a much faster one waiting to be discovered. A story about the other assassins, who seem oddly familiar, runs alongside.

Best for: players who watched Celeste speedruns and wanted to try that mindset themselves. Modes: Single-player, full controller support. Windows only.

Katana ZERO

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Katana ZERO, from Askiisoft and Devolver Digital on April 18, 2019, is a neo-noir action platformer with instant-death combat: one hit kills you, one hit kills them. You slash, dash and slow time to clear each room, deflecting gunfire and using traps and explosives along the way.

It is far more violent than Celeste, so it suits a different mood, but the loop is the same: fail, retry instantly, refine your plan until the room flows. Its story unfolds through cinematic sequences woven into play and heads toward a twisty ending.

Best for: players who want Celeste’s trial-and-error rhythm with sword fights and a dark crime story. Modes: Single-player, full controller support. Windows and macOS.

Metroidvanias with Celeste-level movement

A metroidvania is a game set in one large, connected map where new abilities let you reach areas you could not before. These games swap Celeste’s linear chapters for exploration, but keep the precise movement.

Hollow Knight

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Hollow Knight comes up in almost every conversation about games similar to Celeste, and for good reason. Team Cherry released it on February 24, 2017: a hand-drawn 2D action adventure through a vast ruined kingdom of insects beneath the town of Dirtmouth, with tightly tuned controls built around dodging, dashing and slashing.

Expect far more combat than Celeste, plus tough bosses and optional platforming gauntlets that test the same nerves as B-sides. Four free content updates, Hidden Dreams, The Grimm Troupe, Lifeblood and Godmaster, added bosses, quests and charms.

Best for: players who want a long, atmospheric world with a demanding difficulty curve. Modes: Single-player, full controller support. Windows, macOS and Linux.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

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Silksong, released by Team Cherry on September 4, 2025, has a premise Celeste fans will recognise: you climb. As the hunter Hornet, you are taken to the kingdom of Pharloom and ascend through mossy grottos, gilded cities and misted moors toward the citadel at the top of the world.

The store page promises lethal acrobatic action, a large suite of moves, craftable tools and traps, quests and over 200 foes. It is a combat-heavy game, but the vertical journey and swift movement make it a natural follow-up to a mountain climb.

Best for: Hollow Knight veterans and Celeste players who liked the sense of ascending. Modes: Single-player, full controller support, gamepad recommended. Windows, macOS and Linux.

Ori and the Blind Forest

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If the emotional side of Celeste hit hardest, Ori and the Blind Forest is the pick. Moon Studios released it on March 10, 2015: a visually stunning action-platformer about a young orphan in the dying forest of Nibel, with hand-painted art, a fully orchestrated score and a story about love and sacrifice.

Movement is the star. You chain jumps and abilities through the forest, and the escape sequences demand the same precise timing Celeste trains. It is generally more forgiving than Celeste’s hardest chapters.

Best for: players who want heart and beauty with a moderate challenge. Modes: Single-player, full controller support. Windows only.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

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The sequel, released on March 10, 2020, sends Ori into a vast, exotic new world with towering enemies and challenging puzzles. It keeps the flowing platforming and emotional story of the first game and adds more combat.

Play the first one before this if you can; the story builds on it. If you only try one, the first game is closer to Celeste’s focus on pure movement, while this one is bigger and more varied.

Best for: players who finished Blind Forest and want more. Modes: Single-player, full controller support. Windows only.

Pseudoregalia

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Pseudoregalia, from solo developer rittzler on July 28, 2023, is a retro-inspired 3D platformer metroidvania. You play Sybil, pulled into a distorted dream castle called Castle Sansa, and gain abilities such as an air kick that build into a deep movement system.

It is the best pick here for players wondering what Celeste’s tight, expressive movement feels like in three dimensions. Combat is light and movement stays at the core. The visuals and sound draw on fifth-generation consoles, and a full run takes just a few hours, with different routes for replays.

Best for: movement nerds who want a short, dreamy game they can master. Modes: Single-player, full controller support. Windows only.

Gentler games like Celeste with heart

Not everyone wants another wall of spikes. If you loved Celeste’s story, art and music more than its difficulty, these two keep the feeling and lower the pressure, and they answer the common request for games like Celeste but easier.

GRIS

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GRIS, from Nomada Studio and Devolver Digital on December 13, 2018, is the closest emotional match on this list. Gris is a young girl dealing with a painful experience, and her journey through sorrow shows in her dress, which gives her new abilities as she grows. Where Celeste made anxiety a character, GRIS turns grief into a world you move through.

Its store page describes it as free of danger, frustration or death. You explore through light puzzles, platforming sequences and optional skill challenges, with delicate art and an original score. It uses almost no text, so anyone can play regardless of language.

Best for: players who cried at Celeste and want something calm and beautiful. Modes: Single-player, full controller support, gamepad recommended. Windows and macOS. For more like it, see our best story games on Steam.

Teslagrad

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Teslagrad, released by Rain Games on December 13, 2013, is built around a tower: a young boy explores the long-abandoned Tesla Tower and beyond in a steampunk vision of old Europe, caught up in a conspiracy against a despotic king. The story is told without words.

The platforming is built around magnetism and electromagnetic powers, so you solve more than you dodge. The store page admits puzzles range from easy to controller-chewing, so it is not effortless, but the challenge is more about thinking than reflexes. Fans of puzzle platforming should also browse our best puzzle games on Steam.

Best for: players who enjoyed Celeste’s mechanics-driven puzzle rooms. Modes: Single-player, full controller support. Windows, macOS and Linux.

How to choose your next game after Celeste

The quickest way to pick among these games like Celeste is to name the part you would miss most:

• The B-sides and the grind to get them: Super Meat Boy, then The End Is Nigh.
• Collecting strawberries and finding secrets: The End Is Nigh, then Hollow Knight.
• The dash and going fast: Pizza Tower or Neon White.
• Madeline’s story and the music: Ori and the Blind Forest or GRIS.
• The feeling of climbing toward something: Hollow Knight: Silksong.
• The puzzle-room side of Celeste: Teslagrad.

A worked example

Say you finished Celeste’s main story, tried one B-side, and bounced off it. You loved the soundtrack and the ending more than the hardest rooms. Skip the Meat Boy games for now: they are all difficulty and very little story. Start with Ori and the Blind Forest, which pairs precise movement with an emotional story at a friendlier challenge level. If that still feels too tense, GRIS removes failure entirely. If Ori leaves you hungry for more challenge, step up to Hollow Knight.

Common mistakes when picking platformers like Celeste

• Expecting linear chapters from a metroidvania. Hollow Knight, Silksong and the Ori games ask you to explore, backtrack and sometimes get lost. That is the point, but it is a different rhythm from Celeste’s room-by-room flow.
• Expecting Celeste’s story from the hardcore picks. Super Meat Boy and The End Is Nigh have plots, but they are jokes and set dressing, not the heart of the game.
• Playing on keyboard when a pad is recommended. Every game here has full controller support, and Super Meat Boy, Silksong and GRIS list a gamepad as recommended.
• Forgetting your platform. Celeste runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, but Pizza Tower, Neon White, both Ori games, Pseudoregalia and Super Meat Boy Forever are Windows only on Steam. Mac and Linux players should look first at Super Meat Boy, The End Is Nigh, Hollow Knight, Silksong and Teslagrad.

More lists if you love games like Celeste

If the indie side of Celeste is what drew you in, our best indie games on Steam covers more small-studio standouts across genres. Players who loved piecing together the mystery of the mountain may enjoy our mystery games like Outer Wilds, and if you are after something with a cute art style and a darker edge, try our games like Cult of the Lamb. You can find every recommendation list on our games like the ones you love page, or browse genre picks under the best games on Steam.

Each game above has a card with its Steam screenshots and official trailer, so watch a minute of movement before you decide. With platformers, how a character feels to control tells you more than any description can.

Questions and answers

Is Celeste considered a hard game?

Yes, Celeste is widely seen as a hard platformer, especially its optional B-side chapters, which are built for players who want a brutal challenge. It stays fair, though: the controls are only jump, air-dash and climb, respawns are almost instant, and the game includes an Assist Mode that lets you slow the game down or make yourself invincible. Most players who stick with it finish the main story.

What is an easier game like Celeste?

GRIS is the gentlest pick. Its Steam page describes it as free of danger, frustration or death, and like Celeste it tells a story about a painful personal struggle through movement and music rather than heavy text. Teslagrad and Ori and the Blind Forest are a step up in challenge but still far more forgiving than Celeste's toughest chapters, and they lean on puzzles and exploration.

Which game like Celeste never gets boring?

Super Meat Boy Forever is built for replays: it stitches thousands of handcrafted level chunks into new levels each time you finish it, so a second run looks different from the first. The End Is Nigh offers 600+ levels plus 20+ playable mini game cartridges to collect, and Neon White keeps pulling you back to shave seconds off your best times.

Is Hollow Knight similar to Celeste?

Partly. Both are hand-drawn 2D games with tightly tuned controls, demanding challenges and worlds full of secrets and mysteries to uncover. The big difference is structure: Hollow Knight is a metroidvania, a large connected map you open up by gaining new abilities, with plenty of combat and boss fights, while Celeste is a linear run of chapters focused purely on platforming.

Is there a co-op game like Celeste?

Celeste itself is single-player, and so are most precision platformers. Of the picks here, Pizza Tower lists Shared/Split Screen Co-op and Remote Play Together on Steam, so a second player can join the fast, score-chasing platforming on one PC or over the internet through Remote Play. For more ideas, browse the best co-op games on Steam.